Attn. SHH Trolls: You're Under Arrest if you are in the US

Discussion in 'SHH Community Forum' started by Whirlysplat, Apr 17, 2006.

  1. Whirlysplat Registered

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    http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-ann..._3-6022491.html

    Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

    President Bush recently (January) signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

    In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

    This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

    "The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."

    It's illegal to annoy
    A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language.

    "Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

    Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."

    To grease the rails for this idea, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and the section's other sponsors slipped it into an unrelated, must-pass bill to fund the Department of Justice. The plan: to make it politically infeasible for politicians to oppose the measure.

    The tactic worked. The bill cleared the House of Representatives by voice vote, and the Senate unanimously approved it Dec. 16.

    There's an interesting side note. An earlier version that the House approved in September had radically different wording. It was reasonable by comparison, and criminalized only using an "interactive computer service" to cause someone "substantial emotional harm."

    That kind of prohibition might make sense. But why should merely annoying someone be illegal?

    There are perfectly legitimate reasons to set up a Web site or write something incendiary without telling everyone exactly who you are.

    Think about it: A woman fired by a manager who demanded sexual favors wants to blog about it without divulging her full name. An aspiring pundit hopes to set up the next Suck.com. A frustrated citizen wants to send e-mail describing corruption in local government without worrying about reprisals.

    In each of those three cases, someone's probably going to be annoyed. That's enough to make the action a crime. (The Justice Department won't file charges in every case, of course, but trusting prosecutorial discretion is hardly reassuring.)

    Clinton Fein, a San Francisco resident who runs the Annoy.com site, says a feature permitting visitors to send obnoxious and profane postcards through e-mail could be imperiled.

    "Who decides what's annoying? That's the ultimate question," Fein said. He added: "If you send an annoying message via the United States Post Office, do you have to reveal your identity?"

    Fein once sued to overturn part of the Communications Decency Act that outlawed transmitting indecent material "with intent to annoy." But the courts ruled the law applied only to obscene material, so Annoy.com didn't have to worry.

    "I'm certainly not going to close the site down," Fein said on Friday. "I would fight it on First Amendment grounds."

    He's right. Our esteemed politicians can't seem to grasp this simple point, but the First Amendment protects our right to write something that annoys someone else.

    It even shields our right to do it anonymously. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas defended this principle magnificently in a 1995 case involving an Ohio woman who was punished for distributing anonymous political pamphlets.

    If President Bush truly believed in the principle of limited government (it is in his official bio), he'd realize that the law he signed cannot be squared with the Constitution he swore to uphold.

    And then he'd repeat what President Clinton did a decade ago when he felt compelled to sign a massive telecommunications law. Clinton realized that the section of the law punishing abortion-related material on the Internet was unconstitutional, and he directed the Justice Department not to enforce it.

    Bush has the chance to show his respect for what he calls Americans' personal freedoms. Now we'll see if the president rises to the occasion.

    Biography
    Declan McCullagh is CNET News.com's Washington, D.C., correspondent. He chronicles the busy intersection between technology and politics. Before that, he worked for several years as Washington bureau chief for Wired News. He has also worked as a reporter for The Netly News, Time magazine and HotWired.
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    so um....yeah....thoughts on this?

    - Whirly
     
  2. Calvin Muchas smooches

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    Boring attempt.
     
  3. Whirlysplat Registered

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    Interesting though :)

    - Whirly
     
  4. Calvin Muchas smooches

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    We already had two threads covering this ground.
     
  5. Whirlysplat Registered

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    Unfortunately the search function here is erratic, I have noticed in my short tenure.

    - Whirly
     
  6. Calvin Muchas smooches

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    They still haven't fixed that?
     
  7. Whirlysplat Registered

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    Don't seem to have, which is a shame.

    - Whirly
     
  8. Calvin Muchas smooches

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    Stop signing your posts.
     
  9. XwolverineX Registered

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    OH **** DAMN.



    I'M GOING TO BE ARRESTED - Championsrta.com !!! :eek::down
     
  10. Whirlysplat Registered

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    No

    - Whirly
     
  11. jaguarr Be Your Own Hero

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    Looks like a prison sentence is in muscles' future.

    jag
     
  12. Calvin Muchas smooches

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    Calvin posting here. You should probably cut back on making threads, they're started to feel played. Alright, this is Calvin, signing out.

    This has been a post by Calvin.

    -Calvin


    cal
     
  13. Whirlysplat Registered

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    :) OK

    - Whirly
     
  14. Lackey Registered

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  15. Da Docta Come On!

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    Yeah, only me, Darth, jag, Wilhelm or possibly Lackey(cuz he already has) can. :mad:

    Da Docta, yo
     
  16. Immortalfire In the pale moonlight

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    Owned.
     
  17. Jolie_Desastre Registered

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    calvin you are a s***head!


    dammit i'm going to jail :(
     
  18. deemar325 Registered

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  19. Calvin Muchas smooches

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    I'm gonna assume that was ****head.
     
  20. Jolie_Desastre Registered

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    assume all you want:mad: but you know what i said:(
     
  21. Lackey Registered

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    we should all sign our posts "jag" for like a week :)




    nah, nevermind :o




    On a final note

    jag
     
  22. Calvin Muchas smooches

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    You said you were going to jail. I wouldn't worry though, even if it's you who's initiating the statutory rape situation, I'll probably be the one going to jail, since I'm the older one.
     
  23. jaguarr Be Your Own Hero

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    Knock yourself out, Mullet Man. :)

    jag
     
  24. Super Flight Registered

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    this is funny

    -super
     
  25. Jolie_Desastre Registered

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    sadly even if it was consentual :rolleyes:
     

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